The South Ossetia authorities have extradited a Tajik national, who had been recruiting labor migrants to join the ISIS extremist group, to Russia for further extradition to Tajikistan.    

Russia’s REGNUM news agency reports the South Ossetia security officers have detained Tajik national Umarjon Ismonov, who had been recruiting labor migrants from Central Asia’s states to join the ISIS extremist group.

Ismonov was reportedly detained on September 17 on suspicion of having been involved in an extremist activity.  

Using MegaFon cellular operator, Ismonov was reportedly propagating ISIS ideas through Zello Internet Service.  

Ismonov was going to illegally travel to Syria via Georgia and Turkey, according to REGNUM. 

He was reportedly extradited to the Russian Federation for further extradition to Tajikistan.

South Ossetia is a partially recognized state in the South Caucasus, located in the territory of the South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast within the former Georgian SSR.  South Ossetia declared independence from Georgia in 1990, calling itself the Republic of South Ossetia.

According to data from Tajikistan’s Interior Ministry, more than 150 Tajik nationals suspected of extremist and terrorist offences have been extradited to Tajikistan over the past eighteen months.  133 of them are reportedly linked to the ISIS extremist group.